Detail Movement Interiors - Edinburgh interior designer — What is a mood board? (2024)

What is a Mood Board? Why are they so important to any creative/design process?

I often get asked these questions by people who hear this word flying around in any creative field. I used to ask the same question when I was studying interior design, even architecture. And because some of you got in touch asking me a little bit about this matter,I decided to shed some light on it!

So, what is a mood board?

A mood board is a collection of images, objects, materials, and even fabrics that you like and want to have as part of your project. It is a visual way in which you convey feelings and emotions. For example, how you want to feel in your home after you redecorated.

A mood board can also be created with the purpose to display a certain style/concept.It doesn't have to be limited to the examples above. It can literally be anything: flowers, magazines, pieces of fruit, words, books, anything that will help you explain your idea better.

This is why it is so important for any designer to put together mood boards as soon as the project concept is born. Think of it this way:

• When you first get an idea, you create a concept or a story if you like. This can be anything from a feeling to the smallest drawing or doodle on a piece of paper/napkin, or even something inside your mind.

• Next,you start looking for images that you like and that represent that feeling/word/concept in your mind. For example, if you want to redo your Living Room in a more airy and Scandinavian style, you will not start to look for Classical or eclectic, over-the-top furniture, patterns, etc., right?

• After you gathered enough images and ideas,you start to arrange them together to see what works with what. That, my friends, is creating a mood board.

Now, there a different types of mood boards. You might hear different terms around the internet, but don't worry. In the end, they all have the same role - to evoke your feelings and overall idea. So, let's explore a couple of them, shall we?

1. MOOD BOARD

A mood board shows the "atmosphere" of your idea; a certain feeling, emotion, or sensation. This is usually the most popular one in the bunch and is often used in any line of work (especially fashion, food industry, web design, wedding industry, etc.).

It is done by putting together things that you like, or appeal to you. It can involve any type of image: from places to fabrics, to models, clothes, food, and anything that shows your idea. Take the examples below - one is a mood board showing an airy, comfortable but still sophisticated feeling.

2. SAMPLE BOARD

A sample board usually shows samples of materials. This means hard finishes like stone, wood, metal, marble, etc, but it can also showcase fabric and paint samples.

Usually, this is the type of mood board that is most used by designers when they work with clients. This board is used to help the client see what fabrics would be in their home (usually on furniture and curtains), but it also helps them get a sense of the colours. By seeing all the materials and fabrics together, the client can get a "feel" for the materials, but also for how the room will look. He/she can touch the samples and form a connection with them. CCL remember (don't know what that is - click to read here)?It's a huge game-changer.

3. FABRIC BOARD

The same principle as the sample board with only one difference - displaying only fabric samples (instead of the fabrics and materials). Just like the sample board, the fabric boards can be grouped by room or by pieces of furniture. For example, if you only want to specify what fabrics will be used to dress up a bed in a bedroom, or go for the whole room and show samples for curtains, cushions, carpet, rug, throws, armchairs, etc.

4. FURNITURE BOARD

Yup, you guessed it - it shows the furniture, accessories, art pieces, etc., inside a room. It's the same idea. Just think of it this way: in a fabric or sample board, you show what materials you want to have in a room. With a furniture board, you are showing what pieces of furniture you want to have in that room. This particular board can look different from designer to designer. It can be super detailed or very simple. As long as it gets the idea across and does not overwhelm the client, it doens’t really matter how it looks. What I am trying to say is that with this type of board (or with any of them) the are no rules as to how it should look like.

Same thing as all of the boards above, but on a colour category. However, it can also be a combination of all of the above. Let's say you want to design a green-coloured room. You can show furniture, materials, fabrics, and pictures that only have different shades of green in them. Of course, you don't have to be literally about it. You can have the mood board be around 70% about green things and have 30% a different colour (let's say yellow).

Or you can do a theme board as I did below. I selected some beautiful flowers that represent a “delicate” feeling to me, and I paired them with nature colours (either through materials or fabrics). There are no rules about what you can and cannot do in a mood board. After all, a mood board shows an idea, a concept. It is like transferring an idea from your mind, and putting it to "paper", making it visible. Bringing it to life. That is the whole purpose of it.

Designers use mood boards for the same purpose - to transfer an idea from their mind and into reality. By doing so, they can see what works and what does not, where they need to tweak things, and where they can improve the design. It also helps them to communicate the concept better to their clients. It's basically the bridge that connects the designer to the client.

They may be other types of mood boards out there, depending on the industry. I am sure that the fashion industry might do things a bit differently than interior designers. But the same principle can be applied to any industry, perhaps the Movie industry, Communication, or PR, or any other field really. The bottom line is that there are no rules.You just go with the flow. And I think that is a beautiful thing. No rules, and no limitations to our imagination!

Have you come across anything different in your line of work? Is this something you would enjoy doing or would you trust a designer to do it for you? Let me know below, I would love to know your thoughts on this!

Raluca x